I have taken my car to the Euro Collision in Skokie in the past with good results, but after my most recent experience, I will not be going back.
It all started on July 2, 2022 when I was involved in a car accident. I asked them to tow my car to Euro Collision, as it is close to where I live and, as mentioned above, I have had good results in the past.
The car was towed over on to Euro on July 8th and their initial estimate was that it would be ready on August 3rd. Although my insurance only paid for my rental car through July 29th, I figured I could make do without my car for a little less than a week.
Euro Collision provided me with a phone number for a text update service which would let me know how the car was progressing. I received the following updates from the text service:
* 7/18/22 - "the repair on your Toyota is underway. Your vehicle is on track to be completed on 8/03."
* 7/25/22 - "We are over the halfway mark! Your Toyota is still on target for 08/03."
* 7/26/22 - "We are on track Mark, for 08/03/2022."
* 7/29/22 - "Hi Mark, we are nearing completion. If we encounter any delays, we'll call you."
I received no more text updates prior to August 3rd, so I assumed my car would be ready to go on that date. I gave them on call on August 3rd and was told that my car was delayed and now would be ready on August 12. I received a text update on August 4th stating the same thing.
No big deal, I could wait another 9 days to get my car. So, I waited until August 12th and gave Euro Collision a call to arrange pick up on my car.
Again, I was told that my car was delayed and now it would not be ready until August 19th.
Now I'm starting to get frustrated, I needed my car for a trip downstate on August 23rd. So, I call Euro Collision on August 17, 18, 19th and 22nd, trying to get a straight answer from them as to when my car would be ready and I'm finally told, on the 22nd, that it will not be ready until the 25th. I end up having to rent another car for my trip downstate.
By now you probably see where this is going. I call on August 25th and am told it will not be ready until August 31st. The text updates stop and I call them regularly and am told my car is being assembled and should be ready by the following Wednesday. I call on that Wednesday and am told it will be another week.
This goes on throughout most of September. I am able to negotiate with my contact at Euro collision to reimburse me (out of the insurance deductible) for my car rentals during this time and, when the deductible runs out, they agree to pay for a rental until my car is fixed, but I am beyond frustrated at this point. Finally, my contact tells me that the car has been assembled and they just need to do an alignment and it will be ready on September 23rd.
However, just when I think my car will finally be ready, they pull the rug out from under me again. My contact calls me at 3 pm on September 23rd to inform me that, during the test drive, the hood flew up and was damaged and they will have to replace it, thereby pushing it back another week. Although I find it hard to believe that a reputable repair shop could allow such a thing to happen, what can I do at this point? So, I had to wait another week and, finally, I am able to pick up my car on September 28th.
Overall, while the long wait to get my car repaired was frustrating, what really frustrated me was constantly being told that my car would be ready on a certain day only to call on that day and be told that it would take another week. If this had happened once or twice, I would probably understand, but the fact that it happened several times, makes me think that either they had no idea when it would be ready or they knew it would take a long time and just didn't want to tell me, as they were afraid of losing out on a big insurance payout.
In either case, I think it is a dishonest way of doing business. If you know that it is going to take over 60 days to complete repairs, the customer should be informed of that. At least then they can check around and see if some other place can complete the repairs more quickly.
Stringing along a customer for almost two months is a crappy way of doing business and, for that reason, I will no longer be using Euro Collision for any car repairs. read more